The headline is still 'Custer Died For Your Sins'

Celebrating the Indian manifesto and looking forward to the next 50 years

Fifty years ago Vine Deloria Jr. published “Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.” It became a must-read for Indian Country. Especially when you consider the second title, "an Indian manifesto."

Indian Country Today will mark the anniversary with a month long occasional series in September.

It will include reader contributions — both as essays and video shorts where people talk about what the book meant to them — and read one of their favorite passages.

Video by Patty Talahongva, Indian Country Today

At the end of September the goal would be to have people write about what they see as the New Indian Manifesto. What’s the demand for the next 50 years (and how did we do over the last 50?)

Please submit your video or essay no later than Aug. 31st.

Video submissions:

What to record: Yourself, family, friends, colleagues, etc.

Read: Your favorite passage from “Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto”

Explain (optional): What do you see as the New Indian Manifesto, what’s the demand for the next 50 years, how did we do in the last 50, and/or how the book resonates with you.

Upload: YouTube or Vimeo (email us a link), or social media (use #IndianManifesto and email us the link)

Email to submit: with “Indian Manifesto” in the subject line (Send to editor@Indiancountrytoday.com )

Written essay submissions:

Read: Your favorite passage from “Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto”

Explain (optional): What do you see as the New Indian Manifesto, what’s the demand for the next 50 years, how did we do in the last 50, and/or how the book resonates with you.

2005: Many an Indian activist’s education began with either or both of those books and as Wilma Mankiller has written of Vine Deloria Jr., “No writer has more clearly articulated the unspoken emotions, dreams and lifeways of contemporary Native people.”